Fitness and exercise: top iPhone apps

(Apple)

A recap of apps that will help you get in shape, track your progress and ensure that you sleep well enough to get up and do it again.

iFitness
Reviews are mixed amongst regular gym-goers, but novices have raved about this wildly popular app. The iFitness app has a database of 230 exercises as well as 100 video demonstrations. The app comes with 12 workout programs with different goals - weight loss, ab definition, strength, etc - and offers the ability to create your own exercise programs and exercises. Additionally, the workout journal compiles and tracks the data from a person's workouts and presents the results in an easy-to-read graph form. The latest update of the app also gives users the ability to back-up your progress onto your computer.
Price: $1.99

Hundred PushUps
iPhone users now have help in the quest for the impressive feat of performing 100 consecutive push-ups. By providing a day-by-day program and progress graphing function, Hundred PushUps leads users along a comprehensive route to their goal. Despite complaints of the app crashing, it has a three and a half star average rating on the iTunes store.
Price $1.99

Sleep Cycle alarm clock
As most anyone in a rigorous exercise regime will say, sleep is essential for maximizing your results. By using the iPhone's sensitive accelerometer to determine the progression of the user's sleep cycles throughout the night, it determines the best time during a 30 minute window in which to set off the alarm clock. By doing this, developers say iPhone will go off during the lightest sleep cycle, a more natural way to wake up, leaving the user feeling better rested throughout the day. Afterwards, the sleep cycle graph is shown on screen.  
Price: $0.99

RunKeeper Free
This app uses the GPS technology in the iPhone 3G/3GS to track its user's routes, times and the average pace during a run, much like a GPS watch. Though you can play music at the same time, some have complained that the combination of playing music and running the application drains the battery in the course of a single run. Results are displayed in one-minute intervals in graph format, much as on a treadmill.
Price: Free

Lose It!
Do you ever lose track of what you've eaten during the day? If so, the Lose It! app may help you to track it and your overall caloric intake for the day. As the user goes about their day, they log their caloric intake and expenditure using a database of common foods and activities to determine their net calorie intake for the day. The streamlined app can record data, back it up online and create detailed reports on the user's progress. Users can also create profiles online and create mutual support groups for continuing their weight loss.
Price: Free

Prices are based on those found in the American iTunes App store.